Practically speaking, blogging is the most illogical activity considering the current situations closing in. There are major transitions our family is undergoing that require a lot of effort in a little bit of time. I look forward to sharing with you these exciting goings-on, but that’s for another time. So much is required, but I am experiencing a moment of quiet, and while I allow my ruptured eardrum to heal (stillness is the name of the game), my heart is burning within me and I’m about to spill it all out. It’s one of those times where I see things so clearly, I’m only hoping I can clearly communicate. I would very much appreciate your balancing input.

After reading Luke 12 this morning, I experienced a great amount of fear and joy. Joy that the end really is near. Jesus really is coming back, and if not in my lifetime, it could be in my children’s lifetime. What am I doing to prepare them for His glorious coming? At risk of sounding like a crazy preacher, the Fear of the Lord descended upon me. He really is coming back. Really.

I’ve personally observed pockets of Christians who seem to be embracing this reality and are going after that “pearl of great price.” Nothing seems to be more important than readying themselves, their families, and others for Jesus’ second coming. These people are not a people wallowing in doom and gloom, but are a people of hope, joy, freedom, and love. They are secure in their salvation and their joy comes from relationship with Him and the promise of a perfect eternity together, no matter what temporary hardships meet them on this earth. But they are not in denial of the current state of this world and are active partners with their Redeemer to bring about even more redemption to the world. They do not passively sit, waiting for the world to go to pot and feeling any effort to bring about change would be futile. They recognize the battleground is not against flesh and blood, but against the evil spiritual forces at work, and they do most of the warring on their knees. This is my tribe. I want to align myself with these people.

I’ve also been in the camp of Christians who truly want to be about the Kingdom, but seem to have a hard time really living it out. They’re pretty content with the way things are, they don’t feel things are in that dire of a situation to be all that active and “extreme,” and are just trying to be good people. There isn’t much joy, but there is confusion.

As Christians, we know what’s good and what is sinful, according to the Bible. Or at least we should. We know getting drunk, gossip, sexual immorality, selfishness, greed, and even gluttony is wrong. We try not to drink too much, be too selfish, and we have internet firewalls that catch most of the bad stuff, but hey, we’re not fully redeemed yet, and stuff is going to slip by, right? I don’t think these people are trying to be lazy Christians, I think they just might not be “interpreting the present time,” amongst other issues like Biblical illiteracy.

The fact of the matter is this: Jesus is coming back. Yeah, most Christians are saying, “No duh, I know, I read the Bible. What a cliche thing to say. He’s been ‘coming back’ for over 2,000 years.” He might not come back in our lifetime, but He might in our children’s, or the generation after that, or after that, or after that. What are we doing to prepare them? How are we modeling this readiness? How are we spreading the word so more can be saved?

Sure, there is tension on this side of the New Testament. We are redeemed, but can still sin. But are we using this tension as an excuse, or are we moving forward in our redemption and speaking and acting in our freedom from sin and death? I know we are saved by grace and not works (thank the Lord), but I am also familiar with the sobering parable of the sheep and the goats. The time is here! There is no time for dabbling with the devil. Or have we forgotten what the devil looks like and what our Savior is capable of doing in our lives? With Jesus, our addictions, brokenness, and sicknesses can be healed.

I know I’m not saying anything new, yet not much seems to be changing. This is all coming from one who has been redeemed from the fear of man, the fear of death, the fear of pain and discomfort, and lots and lots of fear, and who has been forgiven of gossip, slander, selfishness, and lying. Yet physically I’m currently struggling with sickness, knowing God could redeem my health, too. There’s that tension. I know the gate is narrow, but I want as many of us as possible to get through it. It is time to really examine our lives, priorities, and thoughts. He is coming, and that will be a glorious day for some and a damned day for others. What will it be for you and your children and their children?

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Drought weights the trees, and from the farmhouse eaves
The locust, pulse-beat of the summer day,
Throbs; and the lane, that shambles under leaves
Limp with the heat–a league of rutty way –
Is lost in dust; and sultry scents of hay
Breathe from the panting meadows heaped with sheaves.